Easter 2—Misericordias Domini
Beloved. This Sunday is called “Misericordias Domini.” It gets this name from the first few words of the Introit in Latin, which is Psalm 33.5: The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. This fleshes out another psalm, Psalm 19 [1-2]: The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech and night unto night reveals knowledge. The creation around us—just by doing what it is supposed to do: the sun shining, the rain falling, the moon shining, the flowers blooming, the trees leafing out, etc.—is proclaiming the Lord; it is declaring His glory and showing His handiwork. As we look at the nature around us, we see the Lord’s goodness is providing for us and giving us all that we need for our earthly lives—again as He gives us the sun and rain, plants and animals, etc. But now in this Easter season, with our Lord’s resurrection fresh in our minds and hearts, we look at the creation around us and let ourselves be taught by the creation: The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. And what do we see? The earth rings out the glad tidings of Easter, of Jesus’ resurrection. All around us, after a long winter when it seemed everything had died—the ground was frozen and covered over with snow, the trees had lost their leaves, the winds howled, etc.—the earth is silently awaking and eloquently proclaiming life, proclaiming Jesus’ resurrection. The naysayers will counter that it is just the natural course of events: spring follows winter; it can all be predicted, that’s how it’s always been etc. But isn’t that, too, the goodness of the Lord in that year in and year out He has so arranged the earth/ nature to proclaim the return of life and, we, by the Holy Spirit in us, rightly see here the reminder of our Lord’s resurrection and the promise of our own resurrection. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.
This Sunday is also nicknamed “Good Shepherd Sunday” because of that most beautiful and comforting teaching we have in today’s Gospel, Jesus’ words: I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep… I am the Good Shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me. Jesus is the Good Shepherd and we, His dear Christians, are His sheep. What a beautiful image—like a good shepherd knows each of his sheep, so Jesus knows us—even better than we know ourselves; and as a sheep knows its shepherd and can identify the sound of his voice, so we Christians—the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand [Psalm 95.7]—know Jesus rightly as our Good Shepherd and follow Him/ His voice. It does us well to consider for a few moments this morning this beautiful image of Jesus the Good Shepherd and what He says: I know my sheep and my sheep know me.
1. What does Jesus contrast Himself with in our text? The hired man. And why? The hired man is only watching the sheep for money; he has no vested interest in the sheep; he is still looking out for number one; He does not own the sheep. He sees the wolf coming, leaves the sheep, and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the sheep and scatters them. Because he works for money, he does not care about the sheep.
But Jesus, the Good Shepherd does own the sheep and He lays down his life for the sheep. Jesus has a “two-fold ownership.” The first thing is that as true God, He is the maker/ creator of all people. All people—the whole creation—belong to Him because He made everything, including all people. Each person is “planned and wanted” by the Lord and so through the means of mother and father He creates that person. That’s why Jesus died for all people—because all are His; He loves all of them He created and wanted to save all.
But the sad fact is that most of humanity rejects Jesus and His saving work. Although they are our Lord’s creation, they reject their Creator and His saving work; even though Jesus laid down His life for them, they do not receive the blessing of Jesus’ work because that blessing is received only through faith. Although Jesus died for all, its benefit only reaches its ultimate goal in those who in faith claim Jesus and His saving work.
But it is precisely here, in the Christian, in the one who in Spirit worked faith clings to Jesus and His suffering and death, that Jesus is in the full sense of the word the Good Shepherd, the Good Shepherd of that person. All people belong to the Lord because He is their Creator and He loves them and brought salvation for them; but only the Christian is the sheep of the Good Shepherd is the double/ full sense of the word, the one who in faith knows the Good Shepherd and is known by Him. I am the Good Shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me.
Again, it is solely Jesus’ work that we, dear Christian, are the sheep of the Good Shepherd, that we know Him rightly in faith. Listen to Jesus’ words at end of our text: I also have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. Notice, even before they are brought into the sheepfold of His Church, they are already the sheep of the Good Shepherd: I also have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen; they already belong to the Good Shepherd but He—the Good Shepherd—must bring them into the sheepfold of the Church. We, dear Christian, belong to the Good Shepherd and He knew us before we knew Him.
Jesus shows Himself to be our Good Shepherd because He died for us. I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Here, too, is a subtle point. Just as Jesus is true God and the Maker of all people and so all are His, so also we see here that Jesus is true man because He can/ does die. He lays down his life for the sheep. Jesus, the God-man, is the Good Shepherd/ our Good Shepherd!
There is also another great comfort for us. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. He is true man so He can die; He lays down his life for the sheep. But if the shepherd lays down his life—puts himself between the flock and the wolf--and is killed by the wolf, what good does that do the flock? With the shepherd out of the way, who can protect the sheep? What stops the wolf from attack[ing] the sheep and scatter[ing] them? What difference is there in the end if the hired hand runs away and the shepherd lays down his life and is killed by the wolf? None! Except—if the Shepherd lays down His life only to take it back again? That’s why Jesus is the Good Shepherd. He dies and rises again. That’s what He says right after our text: No one takes [my life] from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. That’s what Easter is—Jesus taking back His life/ rising from the dead after His suffering and death. Jesus placed Himself between us and sin, death, devil, hell. He fought against them—these, our enemies—and won! He rose from the dead. The Good Shepherd laying down His life for us is not defeat—we are not left defenseless against our spiritual enemies-- but it is a proclamation of victory—His victory for us.
It was love that motivated the Good Shepherd to lay down His life for us [1 Peter 2.25] sheep going astray. In great love for us the Good Shepherd gave Himself into death on the cross as the blessed Apostle abundantly testifies [Eph 5.2; Gal.2.20]: Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us and …the Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me. We belong to the Good Shepherd who knows us and loves us from all eternity and so laid down His life for us.
The work of the Good Shepherd grounded in His love for us not only means that He suffered and died for us, only to rise again victorious over our spiritual enemies—as if that is not enough and worthy of eternal praise and thanks—but the Good Shepherd’s work goes even further. He guides us, leads us, heals us. Through St. Ezekiel [34. 14-16] the Lord tells us the work of the Good Shepherd: I will pasture them in good pasture, and their grazing land will be on the high mountains of Israel. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and they will pasture on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will shepherd my flock, and I myself will let them lie down, declares the LORD God. I will seek the lost. I will bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured. I will strengthen the weak.
Look at all the work of the Good Shepherd that He continues to do for us. It didn’t end with His death and resurrection but continues on to this very moment because He loves; because we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand [Psalm 95.7]. Because we are His, Jesus knows us and as our Good Shepherd, He knows the best way to lead us through our earthly life to Himself in heaven. He gives us the good grazing land and rich pasture of His holy word and sacrament. When we stray from Him, He will bring us back—maybe He will even have to rap us on the head and grab us by the scruff of the neck. And when we are injured or weakened by the attacks of our spiritual enemies, He strengthens and binds us with the absolution and Blessed Sacrament.
2. This is the work of the Good Shepherd. It began with His eternal love for us and continues in time with His own life, suffering and death and continues until He brings us safely to Himself in heaven. Jesus, our Good Shepherd, knows us because we belong to Him; and because we are His, we know Him rightly. Our text: I am the Good Shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me (just as the Father knows me and I know the Father)...I also have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. Then there will be one flock and one shepherd.
Look at the depth of that knowing—we know Jesus and Jesus knows us, just as the Father knows Jesus and Jesus knows the Father. That deep mutual knowledge is the knowing of faith; if we trust in Jesus/ have faith in Him we are one with Him. We are in Him and He is in us. That knowing the Lord, our Good Shepherd, rightly and fully means loving Him—just as His knowing us is His loving us. How do we come to know Jesus our Good Shepherd—and love Him? Through His holy word, the Gospel--that word of the knowledge of our salvation and the forgiveness of our sins. As we come to know Jesus as our Good Shepherd and of His love and saving work for us—we then know Him, rightly, and so we then love Him for Who He is and what He has done for us.
But left to ourselves and our own devices, we cannot know Jesus, our Good Shepherd rightly; as we come into the world, our minds are darkened and we do not know who the true God is, nor can we figure it out. But through the Holy Spirit at work in the word, He brings us to faith, to the true and right knowledge of Him; and this is the work of the Good Shepherd now—gathering us into the Sheepfold of the Church. By His Word and the Holy Spirit, the Good Shepherd opens our ears and hearts so that we recognize and follow Him.
Our text: I also have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. Then there will be one flock and one shepherd. Through faith, worked by the Holy Spirit, as Jesus gathers us into the Sheepfold of His Church, we come to know Jesus, in fact the whole Godhead rightly as our God and Savior. Through the word and Spirit Jesus impresses upon our heart: “You are mine!” And in the Blessed Sacrament He impresses that upon us in a very wonderful and special way as He gives us His very body and blood, as He comes and dwells within us. There is no way we can doubt that we are His. In the certainty of faith we know Him rightly and love Him. In that faith and love, we seek out in His word and sacrament the voice of our Good Shepherd when it seems He has left us—because He hasn’t. The Good Shepherd knows us and in faith we know Him and follow Him. INJ Amen